Another assignment for the Guardian Weekend – on this one I definitely had to catch up with pop culture. I remember hearing of a contest for Justin Bieber to play North Korea but unfortunately that turned out to be a spoof. The idea was to take a variety of environmental portraits but we ended up being confined to a tiny room with white walls and a scratched up table right next to the cafeteria at the HP Pavillion in San Jose. Tough one, but I was excited because Jon Ronson was in the room to to write the story. I’ve always enjoyed his funny adventures with weirdos and extremists. Highly recommend to check out his books and here’s his encounter with the Bieber.

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